Notes towards a history of Khoi literature
This article puts forward a revisionist history of Khoi literature, and also presents a number of translated Khoi narratives that have not been available in English before. Compared to the large volume of Bushman literature and scholarship, there has been very little Khoi literature and engagement with it, and an argument is presented to account for this gap in South African cultural history. Until now, the major source of Khoi literature was Wilhelm Bleek’s Reynard the Fox in South Africa (1864), and this text is critically interrogated as a limiting version of Khoi orature. An alternative corpus of Khoi narratives is presented that was originally published in Leonard Schultze’s Aus Namaland und Kalahari (1907).
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Title
Notes towards a history of Khoi literature
author
Wittenberg, Hermann
Is Part Of
English Academy review, 28 (1): 5-22
isbn
1013-1752
Ethical Disclaimer
Available online at: http://repository.uwc.ac.za/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10566/866/Wittenberg_Towards%20A%20History_2011.pdf;jsessionid=2D8454D79CB883911504FF1D480313F1?sequence=5
Identifier
LIT180
Description
This article puts forward a revisionist history of Khoi literature, and also presents a number of translated Khoi narratives that have not been available in English before. Compared to the large volume of Bushman literature and scholarship, there has been very little Khoi literature and engagement with it, and an argument is presented to account for this gap in South African cultural history. Until now, the major source of Khoi literature was Wilhelm Bleek’s Reynard the Fox in South Africa (1864), and this text is critically interrogated as a limiting version of Khoi orature. An alternative corpus of Khoi narratives is presented that was originally published in Leonard Schultze’s Aus Namaland und Kalahari (1907).
Date Issued
2011
Subject
Khoikhoi (African people) literature-History
Language and culture-South Africa
Type
Article
Language
English
Publisher
Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
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